Internet Voting Test

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The Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta (pop. 817,498) asked people to vote on their favorite color jelly bean. They asked them to register to vote as usual but instead of going to a polling station, that asked people to use their computer to vote securely and confidentially over the Internet, selecting their favorite color. While this seems silly, the goal was to test Scytl's Internet voting solution.

Once a voter's registration has been accepted, the voter is issued a Personal Identification Number (PIN) that is required in order to vote in the Jellybean Election. Voting took place between 8:00 a.m. MST on October 22^nd and 12:00 p.m. MST on November 2^nd. Results were announced shortly after the election (red won) and every voter can verify that his or her ballot has been counted using a special code embedded in the secure envelope. Here's a video on how they hoped it would go:

It is too early to tell how things went, but a report is due in January 2013 that will detail how the voting process fared. We hope to follow up then. So far, things seem to have gone very well.

Laura Kennedy, director of elections for the City of Edmonton, said:

We are very excited about this innovative, fun and true-to-life mock election that we are undertaking using Scytl's system. Our next General Election will take place on October 21, 2013. Therefore, we want to get as much information as possible on the security, usability and other attributes of Scytl's internet voting solution as well as general feedback from voters on their comfort level in using internet voting as an option during next year's General Election.

Meanwhile, for the US presidential election, the State of Alaska has gone the extra mile, allowing all of its citizens to register online, fill out their voting ballots online, and send them back as electronic documents over the Internet.

But Alaska is not using a complete Internet voting platform -- what they are doing is letting people use the Internet to register, receive the voting ballot, mark their choices, and deliver the "paper ballot" over the Internet. Scytl has provided the technology, but does not manage the entire process, county officials do. Each printed ballot contains a certification code to ensure it comes from a registered voter and can only be used once.

Unfortunately, there is no standard for testing electronic voting systems. According to the US Election Assistance Commission:

Currently, a single comprehensive standard for developing and testing Internet voting systems does not exist. Pilot project sponsors often drew heavily from variety of standards and requirements to develop and implement Internet voting systems. The majority of systems were not developed or tested to a single standard; often several standards, supplemented with additional requirements, were used.

Many countries, states, and counties used or are starting to use some forms of electronic voting, and each have developed their certification standards to choose a provider and solution.

It is very important that city, county, state, and federal CIOs start looking at the technology seriously. In 2008, the State of Florida conducted a complete audit of Scytl's voting system for the absentee voters going through every line of the source code and certifying the solution.

Switzerland, where participative democracy is the norm, is one of the countries were Internet voting has been used in several elections, including referendums. In the Canton of Neuchâtel, Internet voting has been used since 2004 to carry out from three to six citizen consultations, binding electoral processes and referendums each year, with over 60 percent of the votes cast via the Internet.

It is only a matter of time before Internet voting is the norm. But it will up to CIOs to test, implement, and secure Internet voting. Share your thoughts on the biggest hurdles to e-voting below.